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Today is March the 12th 2018, good evening to all of you and hello to those are listening by way of the internet or reading the text.

We continue on with Understanding the Awakening of Faith in the Mahayana.The title, Understanding the Awakening of Faith in the Mahayana is interesting because when we talk about “in the Mahayana,” you might as well say “in the present moment.” In the Mahayana is like saying “walking in Chan.” When somebody is walking in Chan, they are walking, talking, sleeping, Chan. Their mind is in the present moment, it’s clear, free from obstructions. Here, it's not saying “okay, this is the Mahayana faith but it’s the faith in the doing of Mahayana. There’s again a subtle difference here but it makes a big difference in terms of understanding what is being presented here. It is saying that when you have this faith, Mahayana manifests. It is the same as what the Heart Sutra was getting into in terms of looking at it and seeing things in this way of clarity. So this is where we start with it.

Last week we talked about [in the text] it was saying kind of almost like a preamble or overture in a symphony what is going to be discussed. This discourse talked about the Root of Faith in Mahayana. There were five sections: motivations, theme, explication, practice of faith, and benefit to the practice. So the first one is:

·Motivations.

Question: What motivates the composition of this discourse?

Response: There are eight motivations. Which are the eight?

So why do we have this discourse? And later on they’ll of talk about this and say like “we already have the sutras you know, why do we need discourses about things or more sutras? They’re just more stuff to read.” And they’re saying “because people don't have the same roots.” Some people have very deep roots and some have very shallow roots, or no root at all. Whenever I run into people, depending on who they are, I may give them some kind of a wisdom for them to use and to think about. Oftentimes especially with Westerners, I may say to them “Picture an apple in your mind. What is the apple suspended on?” And it is a conundrum there that if they answer it right, they don't know. It’s a matter going but it’s interesting like “I'm interested in this.”

I've had that when I’ve given this to people and they go “I've been thinking about this the whole week.” And literally, many many people who have never been introduced to any kind of Zen, or Chan, or Buddhism, they don't know. Other people you just practice “smile” at them; somebody walking down the street and you smile. And your smile reflects this. What you think smile reflects?

Students: Positive energy, acceptance.

Gilbert: What do you think? The question is I'm walking down the street and I smile at somebody. What is going through my mind?

Student: (Made a joke) (Laughs…)

Gilbert: Compassion – “I will deliver you before I’m delivered,” every single time, every single person I see, every dog, every bug, everything that I can see, hear, sense, I will do that! Not bad! The more I give…

Student: You know what you’re doing? You’re setting up the faith via the oftenest time because you’re an expert.

Gilbert: I don’t know about that. I don't know too much about it.

Student: Because you’re vowing to deliver all these sentient beings before yourself that you’re going to be responsible for in this lifetime.

Gilbert: There’s no doubt, I’m already responsible for them once from their previous lifetime.

It is this way in which we look. This is the subtleness of the wisdom and it doesn’t cost you anything. If anything, it makes it’s easier for you to do things and things kind of flow in your direction. You don't do it for that purpose but it makes your life a lot easier. Even your enemies don't stay as long as they would’ve otherwise. It's not an inoculation against adversity in life but it's setting forth something very positive, very harmonious, and very compassionate. All of those are correct answers. It’s just the way that we are. But it's the most subtle of all the Buddhadharma because in order to really realize it, one must engage in it; engage in the Mahayana. We have faith in the Mahayana, not what somebody said way back when Nagarjuna or whoever said something (I’m not sliding him because I admire and respect him) but what they were telling you to do. They are instructing you and this is very incredible. It is like “Go down that path. If you go that path, if you go that way, [you know] something good is going to happen, something very very good.”

For the novice and the uninitiated, we try to encourage them by giving them faith “go, go, go!” Some of them you tell it to them like an infomercial “How would you like to remove [you know] 50% of your suffering right now? You know, and your family too?” Shipping and handling extra though (Laughs…) but wait, there's more! You can remove the other part and become enlightened.” Not bad! It doesn't cost you anything! Well, it does though! What does it cost you?

Student: Effort.

Gilbert: The effort is there no matter what. What cost you is your ego. You’ve got to give up your ego. That's not “you!”

Like in the Surangama Sutra, the Buddha was admonishing Ananda; “Ananda, that’s not your mind!” Don’t think in this way! Don't think in any kind of duality. Just imagine that we are all one big giant organism. Even the ants have it better than us in terms of understanding that aspect. They are limited but at least, they work together; until they go to another colony and start on that one.

Student: I suspect a friend of mine might have a question, which would be let’s say you have a friend and that group of friend, there’s another friend you have, but not maybe a friend but someone who typically treats you very poorly. How would you respond to that individual who you wind up being stuck around because he’s in your group who often treats you very poorly and frankly you don’t care much for?

Gilbert: I would say something but your wife is sitting right next to you. (Laughs…) No, obviously, she’s not the one. But what Master Sheng Yen said was that when somebody told them that about their spouse, he said “that’s wonderful news!”

And she goes, “wait, you didn't hear what I said, he’s a jerk!” “He’s a jerk every single day!”

He goes, “That’s great!”

She said, “What’s so great about that?”

He goes, “Not everybody has somebody like a petty tyrant like that can help them practice every single day.”

You just have to see it for what it is and you’re clear about it. That belongs to him, not to you. When you fight back, that belongs to you. But if that person is that way, it’s just causes and conditions so it doesn't affect your tranquility. Dìzàng Pusa, the Earthstore Bodhisattva went to hell to deliver sentient beings. Did the flames affect him (or her)? No! Coldness? No! Just the heart is enough and we don't have to suffer from that. When people do things against us, if we need to defend ourselves we can. But we should not try to defend the “self.” That’s what causes problems. That's what their problem is, so why make it ours? There's no need to think in this way. You cannot change an enemy by fighting an enemy. You have to exhibit an unbridled compassion and hopefully that the person have an understanding, or a sense of shame, or feed into the harmony that’s around you. It’s the only way you can do it. You can never defeat an enemy. In defeating an enemy, “defeat’ is the whole purpose of Mahayana.

So you have to be very very careful about how you are; mindful of that. The solution is not hatred but of compassion, of understanding it. And maybe you owed that to that person from before maybe in this lifetime or maybe in another lifetime. But you understand Paticcasamuppada - causes and conditions never fail. So if you do not make it a problem in this lifetime, maybe next lifetime that person will not be your enemy, or maybe in this lifetime the person may not be your enemy. I've had that happen many times where people want to fight with me, but you just let that go. It's better that way because when you’re chasing after your reputation, chasing after your tranquility, you’ll never have it. You have to see all that comes from the wisdom and compassion. Did that answer your question? Okay, you’re welcome.

So we continue on. It’s saying what motivated this discourse is because people have different levels and here there’s this 8 motivations and you begin to understand this a little bit more. It says:

First: This is the common denominator of all motivations.

All motivation of why this is being presented, this is the most common denominator. What would you think would be the most common denominator?

Student: (joking….) what’s in it for me?

Gilbert: No, (laughs…) The most common denominator, the motivation to present this is what?

Student: Compassion.

Gilbert” What does compassion represent?

Student: Wisdom? See clearly?

Gilbert: And what does the wisdom do? Okay, I’ll give you a hint. (Gilbert made a bow with palms joined)

Student: Faith?

Gilbert: You’re right there but you can’t see it.

That is, to help sentient beings liberate themselves from suffering and attain happiness, though not in the sense of worldly fame, wealth or honor.

To deliver sentient being.

Student: But that is compassion. Compassion is the wish to end suffering.

Gilbert: Okay. I give you half-credit for it; the “self” took the other half. (Laughs…)

Second: To explain the fundamental teachings of the Tathagata in order for sentient beings to have right comprehension without misunderstanding.

Tathagata is called the “Thus Come One” or the “Thus Gone One.” It means the same thing. The term Tathagata represents thusness. We talked about this last week.Thusness is not a definition because it cannot be defined. It is just the way it is. So when we see things and we look at it in terms of the fundamental teaching, what is the fundamental teaching of the Tathagata?

Student: Right view.

Gilbert: Right view and in right view, what is the main theme of right view? Hint: Sanskrit.

Student: Dukkha?

Gilbert: No dukkha.

Student: Paticcasamuppada.

Gilbert: Paticcasamuppada - causes and conditions never fail. It is the Buddha-mind. It is the fundamental teaching. It is right view. Everything boils down to that. Everywhere you look, everything is perfectly, precisely in this way. You mentioned emptiness. Emptiness is a very interesting term.

We’re going to go on a little bit of a detour here in a moment. What is emptiness? And those who’ve been reading online hold it for a while. What is emptiness?

Student: No-self.

Gilbert: Okay.

Student: Infinite possibility.

Gilbert: Infinite possibility to who? To Everyone? But if all sentient beings are illusory, then to who? Think about that one. Anybody else, what is emptiness? Don’t empty out the room at once.

Student: The elimination of the ego and then all that's left is emptiness.

Gilbert: Alright, anybody else?

Student: It’s not a substance but it’s not not-substance at the same time so it’s sometimes we think about emptiness as a vacuum, but it’s not a vacuum and it’s also not what we think of it as emptiness. It’s transient.

Gilbert: You’ve got to keep working on that. Where you're at with that, you have to contemplate that.

Student: Is it mind?

Gilbert: Mind is, what would you say?

Student: The emptiness is the quality of mind, right?

Gilbert: Keep looking at that.

Student: You don’t stick on something.

Gilbert: So where does that lead? If the mind is not sticking, where does that lead?

Student: When I was in school taking World Religions class that brought me here, we had a class discussion on emptiness. One of the definition part of the conversation that helped me is when the teacher explained that a bowl is just a bowl. The important part of the bowl is the space around the inside, the emptiness of the bowl which we see the nothing. I don’t think I’m saying it very well.

Gilbert: How about translate that into Chan now? Translate that into Right View? You can do it! Don't think! Stan’s already got it. (Laughs…) He just lost it.

Student: Emptiness is beyond language, beyond concept and it can only be “understood” through experience.

Gilbert: What experience?

Student: The experience of emptiness, like mind.

Gilbert: You guys must’ve been reading my e-chats or something.

Student: So to answer the question you asked of me is the infinite possibility [so to speak]. Our experience is paradoxically no one.

Gilbert: But we make a vow to deliver these no ones. Why? This the subtle part, no more ABC’s here for you. We got you on a doctorate program here.

Student: Because of the effect on the whole.

Gilbert: Are referring to the whole [as the total] or the hole?

Student: Both.

Gilbert: Which one is the emptiness?

Student: It’d have to be both because both can be true.

Gilbert: Or they can both be false.

Student: Yes.

Gilbert: Or one can be true and one can be false. That’s a tetra lemma.

Student: To me it’s like a religious paradox almost Kind of like a joke. But the joke was that “can God do anything?” And the comment was “yes.” But can God make the rock so big that he can’t lift it? In words, it seems like that cannot be true, but on another level beyond that, that's possible; that that statement to be true. So I was going for the infinite possibilities and that’s what I mean. I don’t know if that makes sense but…

Gilbert: If you can swallow all the water of the Ganges River, then I’ll tell you.

Student: (Laughs…) I’ll try!

Student: Perhaps another aspect of emptiness is the lack of ego and lack of self.

Gilbert: Then what’s left?

Student: Emptiness.

Gilbert: Does everything go away?

Student: No.

Gilbert: Where does it go?

Student: It never went.

It’s very interesting because today when I went to the one online group, a lot of them were saying the emptiness of phenomena. But it’s not emptiness of phenomena. “Emptiness” is a very poor word for this word “void.” It’s a very poor word; even void is a bad word to say it. It’s the opposite.

Student: I just want to say that if everything is an illusion, then emptiness is a poor word for describing why nothing ever was and everything is an illusion.

Gilbert: But what is it?

Student: It isn’t. There’s no word to describe it.

Gilbert: But it’s still there.

Student: It’s like the description of the mind being the screen on which all life plays out.

Gilbert: Yes?

Student: So emptiness is when the screen is revealed. The screen is still there.

Gilbert: What about the picture that’s on it? Where did the picture go?

Student: Back to the illusion.

Gilbert: Where did the illusion go?

Student: I don’t know.

Gilbert: Can you help her? You’re sitting there like a lamp post so I’m going to ask you a question. (Laughs…)

Student: The illusion goes back to mind.

Gilbert: Mind, but the mind is not “one;” even the “one” returns to mind. The substance of mind is what? Please tell me.

Student: Mind.

Gilbert: There you go; “whew!” (Laughs…) Alright, you’re on a roll I’ll give you the second question then. What is the primary meaning of mind?

Student: Mind.

Gilbert: There you go. You see, so brilliant tonight. (Laughs…)

So this emptiness has to be contemplated. We cannot define it. We have to experience it. Emptiness is all the time happening, it’s wonderful, manifesting, dynamic to every situation that’s there. Perfectly happening, neither sacred nor profane, undefiled simply seeing it very clear, unperfumed. Perfume means it’s an akusala thought, an attaching thought (you were talking about attaching earlier). It's not just a sticky thought that sticks to things. It’s just moves very easily but if there is an akusala thought, it’s perfectly in its place in accordance with causes and conditions. It’s perfectly there: likes, dislikes, discriminations. Remember we talked about this about two or three weeks ago where the Buddha was asked “where is the practice of the Buddha?” And he said “in the mind of discriminations of the sentient being.” It's not separate from that and it sees very clearly – paticcasamuppada – causes and conditions never fail.

When we see things in this way, the idea of the “thusness of things,” this is the way it is. Sunyata – emptiness and compassion all come together. People misunderstood the Heart Sutra in terms of that, but they should not have because Kuanyin Bodhisattva was the proponent there instructing Sariputra. This particular part [in terms of that] shows compassion as a result. From the Mahāprajñāpāramitā Sutras, there came a newer developments, a newer refinement of Buddhist philosophy or thoughts. What was that? Anybody know?

Student: Tathagatagarbha.

Gilbert: And what did this bring?

Student: Buddha-nature.

Gilbert: Buddha-nature. Yes?

Student: Tathagata, I thought that was just merely another name for the Buddha.

Gilbert: This also is the Buddha-womb, which can be interpreted two ways. The way I interpreted it is “All encompassing;” the thusness of everything and that “we” all have Buddha-nature. Where the Heart Sutra says that everything is empty and out of this emptiness, this wisdom comes. But when we have the idea of the Tathagatagarbha, then we understand there is a Buddha-nature.

Buddha-nature is a very interesting concept and essentially (and I was writing about this today to the week Chan group), but it straddles monism, which is like the idea that there is a one entity. And the people will say “well, that’s monism because of its Buddha-nature” and so that [you know] you’re worshipping the Buddha. But it's not because the Buddha is never defined, never defined. The Diamond Sutra says… Stan, can the Buddha be known by its 32 marks?

Student: No.

Gilbert: No, it cannot be known by its 32 marks. You cannot find him in this way.

It’s undefinable; the term thusness is undefinable. So as a result of that, philosophers cannot toll Buddhism over to the state of monism simply because of the refinement of the Buddha-nature. Buddha-nature and the principal rule of the Buddha-nature, anybody know? Paticcasamuppada, that’s the way things are. What is the self-nature of mind? The self-nature of mind is causes and conditions never fail. It is in this way. The Buddha-nature has an interest in alleviating suffering of illusory sentient beings. Why? Because it’s not other than the Buddha-nature so it wants to take care of that.

Student: It’s kind of presenting it as flexibility or maximum motion. So basically, if you’re in a room and you don’t want to stay in one place, you want to move around like in thermal dynamics. Basically it’s to maximize or lengthen the…

Gilbert: Can you complete your thoughts without entropy?

Student: It’s like water, it seeks the lowest level so just the nature of it is just going to flow down to the lowest level the same way Buddha-nature seeks to know itself as Buddha-nature.

Gilbert: It's very interesting because it knows itself, it already knows that. Just like in the Diamond Sutra where Dipamkara Buddha predicted that Shakyamuni would become a Buddha in a different lifetime. It knows this already but nevertheless it has an interest [via karuna] in this illusory suffering. Your example is a very good example of this way of this natural flow and so these kinds of similes and metaphors, they’re things that help us understand to try to achieve this kind of a realization that cannot be expressed in words. You think the words and it’s like your feet take you up to the edge of the pool but you’ve got to jump in [you know] and you have to let go. And when that happens, these words no longer are words - this kind of realization.

Let me jump ahead a little bit. I remember where I read something like this. Let me see if I can find it. This is little bit ahead of what whereat but it fit's where we’re at right now. It is talking about the meaning of Mahayana – the great vehicle.

The meaning of Mahayana (Great Vehicle) is illustrated by the three greats:

What are the three?

1.The greatness of embodiment -- because all physical and mental events (dharmas) are equal in true thusness, without increasing or decreasing.

So the first part is a state of equanimity; that the mind is in the state of equanimity. It doesn't have sacred or profane, or opinions. It simply is the nature of the mind. What is its nature? Causes and conditions never fail.

3.The greatness of application -- because it is able to give rise to wholesome karmic causes and fruits for this world and for transcending this world.

So Mahayana in its application is great because it’s able to set into motion those things that will deliver enumerable sentient beings; that all will benefit from this; that this is karmic causes and the fruit will be there to transcend the world, meaning delivering enumerable sentient beings.

It is the fundamental vehicle for all the Buddhas. All the Bodhisattvas are conveyed by this Dharma to the realm of the Tathagata.

So all of this is what’s embodied in this idea of this emptiness, and we can also say thusness. It all functions in the perfect way. So this emptiness is very dynamic and it is very caring in a natural way. So when we see this, that this is just how mind works and it’s easy for us to do it. When we begin to see how mind works, something very interesting happens. We develop what is called “Dharma joy.” If we don't hold to this Dharma joy, it will work very well ad it will take us to the next level. But initially, there's this joy of realizing “Wow, this is this is very incredible!” And when we see that it's amazing.

There was another part that I wanted to read. Here in this part it says:

II. Theme:

Now that the motivations have been explained, the theme will be stated. Generally speaking there are two perspectives of Mahayana. What are the two?

The first is Dharma. The second is meaning. What is called Dharma is the mind of sentient beings.

Remember what I said that the Buddha uses [as practice] the mind of sentient beings.

This mind constitutes all the physical and mental events (dharmas) of the secular world and for transcending this world.

So this mind is able to transcend.

The meaning of Mahayana is revealed through this mind.

Remember I told you many times that “mind reveals itself.” Mind is always revealing itself but because of obscurations in our mind, we don't see it but it’s always there and revealing. And the more one sits in meditation, holds to this awareness in the present moment, mind will reveal itself. You don’t have to do a darn thing. It will come to you. It will literally display itself in an incredible array of information, beyond anything that you could download on your computer. Your computer would blow up. But it is in this way. That download could be for a second, or 2 seconds, or could be for an afternoon. But it is revealed.

And it says:

Why is that? It is because the inherent true thusness of the mind…

What you already have and you already have this Buddha-mind.

…reveals the embodiment of Mahayana.

So it reveals the embodiment of Mahayana and what is the embodiment of Mahayana? We’ve been talking about it all day long.

It is revealed. When the revelations come, “voilà!” Gilbert is gone. What the heck can I do with this body? I’m there and I’m on my phone, “What did the Clippers do? What did the Lakers do??” Forget that! “What did the Tathagatagarbha do?” They have a better score you know.And right away, I’m right back to that. Why? It’s because that's the embodiment of Mahayana. It is there because mind reveals and time is flying; “I need to get to it.” And every day I feel more imperative to communicate the Dharma to people. It is just the way it is. Not because I’m addicted to it, but I'm mindful of the time and I'm mindful that I can use this body, I choose to use this body for Mahayana purposes. We work in this way so you don't get tired. You don’t go “I’m so tired doing this and that.” I'm just wondering if I'm missing somebody that I could touch. This is how it is.

There is a revelation; there's a mind reveal that I talked about. I don’t want to talk too much about it because then you’ll be looking for something in the super-mundane, but in all likelihood it’ll be your super-imagination. But it will come. Why? Because this is the practice. Why? Because causes and conditions never fail. That thusness is already there. You don't have to reach out and grab anything. It is there and this is your motivation to practice.

This group has a superior understanding and so I talk to you in this way. Other people, I would take it down a couple of notches. But what I want to do is give you something to contemplate; really contemplate, not think about but to contemplate, really look into this. And it’s got to bug you a little bit; “Why is he saying it, why is he saying it in that way? What is this?” And the more you contemplate it, the more there's a self-absorption – the self is absorbed in the self-nature of mind. And you become useful and do things that are there like: “Take out the trash!” “No, I’m watching the game. I can do it at the break or whatever.” You do whatever you can do and you become very useful, you become very productive in your life. You're planning ahead.

Each day before I go to sleep, I already have whatever I’m going to eat for the next day laid out. I'm thinking about if all my clothes are laid out. I’m like Superman; I can just go and grab something real quick and jump in to my suit (well, take a shower then jump into a suit) and I’m out. There's this planning there and this planning is the planning of delivering sentient beings. That's how it work and it pays off in every other aspect of your life. Every other aspect of your life becomes clearer, cleaner, and there's no suffering [you know]. You don’t have to worry about taking out the trash. Taking out the trash in California is easy. Try that in Michigan. Even going out to your car is bad over there. So we don't have it that bad. The worst thing that might happen here in the summer time is maybe get a mosquito bite or something. But other than that, it’s alright! So we just see everything very clearly. Any question?

Student: I just want to know how to contemplate; contemplate by looking inward to our mind?

Gilbert: Yes, our question is a good one especially for people who are listening in - how to contemplate. Contemplation has nothing about thinking. Have you ever done the practice of direct contemplation where you go outside and look at a flower, or whatever? It’s the same but you're just contemplating. As you’re contemplating, your object of contemplation is mind itself.

Today I was introducing to somebody who want to know what the “Cat and Mouse exercise” is where one is meditating and watching this kind of like a hole (like a cartoon hole) where the cartoon mouse comes out and you’re a cat waiting to catch it. Every thought that comes out, you catch it and let it go, catch it and let it go. But once somebody becomes adept with that, they don't watch the mouse anymore, they watch the cat. That is mind-looking-at-mind. That’s direct contemplation. When you sit to meditate, you are not thinking about the method. You’re contemplating the method. The method is present just like in direct contemplation where you're looking at the flower outside. It’s the same thing. Awareness is present, the method is there, and it’s the object of your contemplation. You’re just looking at it - mind is looking at mind. The method is created in mind, mind is looking at what is created in itself. And if you do that right, mind will reveal. You will be generating an incredible amount of wisdom.

If you sit to meditate and you’re holding the method in consciousness trying to swat the flies of thoughts going by, you get nothing. You’ll be able to warm up your cushion but that's about it. Other than that, no benefit; maybe the patience to sit there and practice your legs. Shifu used to always say when people went to the retreat “Do you come here to practice the Dharma or your legs?” We don't practice our legs. Please consider what I said and try to remember it. You’re directly contemplating your method - mind is looking at mind. It's like water looking at water. That’s sometimes when I talk to the other group I’ll say “It's like an invisible fish swimming in water.” This is contemplation. This is the thusness of all things. Any other questions? No? We’ll take our break then.